Eighty years of research on islet amyloidosis in Uppsala

Science is said tobe free inSweden in the sense that scientists areallowed todo researchonany subject, but there isone very serious limitation: theworkhas tobe funded.The latter aspecthasbecome increasingly evidentduring later years. In many ways, research was more free decades ago whenmore money was directly allocated to universities and their departments. Inthisway, islandsofresearchcouldmoreeasilydeveloparoundasuccessfulscientist, andifhe(itusedto bemen, at least inmedical research)was luckyhemight recruit anumberofpupilswhocould take the research further. Themostwell-knownexampleof this scenario inUppsalaofcourse isCarlvonLinné(1707–1778)withhis largegroup of famous disciples.On the other hand, it is a risk that a scientific line fades out rapidlywhen a leading and charismatic person dies or moves. There is a multitude of examples of this phenomenon.